Manual Chapter : Load Balancing Diameter Application Requests

Applies To:

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BIG-IP LTM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
Manual Chapter

Load Balancing Diameter Application Requests

Overview: Diameter load balancing

An optional feature of the BIG-IP® system is its ability to load balance and persist requests that applications send to servers running Diameter services. The BIG-IP system can also monitor each server to ensure that the Diameter service remains up and running.

Task summary

You implement Diameter load balancing by creating various local traffic objects in an administrative partition.

Task list

Creating a custom Diameter profile

The first task in configuring Diameter load balancing on the BIG-IP® system is to create a custom Diameter profile.
  1. On the Main tab, click Local Traffic > Profiles > Services > Diameter .
    The Diameter profile list screen opens.
  2. Click Create.
    The New Diameter profile screen opens.
  3. In the Name field, type a unique name for the profile.
  4. Click Finished.
The custom Diameter profile appears in the New Diameter Profile list.

Creating a custom Diameter monitor

After you create a Diameter profile, you can create a custom Diameter monitor. The purpose of the Diameter monitor is to monitor the health of all servers running the Diameter service.
  1. On the Main tab, click Local Traffic > Monitors .
  2. Click Create.
  3. In the Name field, type a unique name for the monitor, such as my_diameter_monitor.
  4. From the Type list, select Diameter.
  5. Retain the default values for all other settings.
  6. Click Finished.

Creating a pool to manage Diameter traffic

The next step in a basic Diameter load balancing configuration is to define a load balancing pool that contains Diameter servers as its members.
  1. On the Main tab, click Local Traffic > Pools .
    The Pool List screen opens.
  2. Click Create.
    The New Pool screen opens.
  3. In the Name field, type a unique name for the pool.
  4. For the Health Monitors setting, in the Available list, select a monitor type, and click << to move the monitor to the Active list.
    Tip: Hold the Shift or Ctrl key to select more than one monitor at a time.
  5. Using the New Members setting, add each resource that you want to include in the pool:
    1. In the Node Name field, type a name for the node portion of the pool member.
      This step is optional.
    2. In the Address field, type an IP address.
    3. In the Service Port field, type a port number, or select a service name from the list.
    4. In the Priority field, type a priority number.
      This step is optional.
    5. Click Add.
  6. Click Finished.
The pool is configured to manage Diameter servers as pool members.

Creating a virtual server to manage Diameter traffic

The final task in configuring Diameter load balancing is to define a virtual server that references the custom Diameter profile and Diameter pool that you created in previous tasks.
Note: The virtual server to which you assign the Diameter profile must be a Standard type of virtual server.
  1. On the Main tab, click Local Traffic > Virtual Servers .
    The Virtual Server List screen opens.
  2. Click the Create button.
    The New Virtual Server screen opens.
  3. In the Name field, type a unique name for the virtual server.
  4. In the Destination Address field, type the IP address in CIDR format.
    The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is 10.0.0.1 or 10.0.0.0/24, and an IPv6 address/prefix is ffe1::0020/64 or 2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64. When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP® system automatically uses a /32 prefix.
    Note: The IP address you type must be available and not in the loopback network.
  5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced.
  6. From the Diameter Profile list, select a profile.
  7. In the Resources area of the screen, from the Default Pool list, select the relevant pool name.
  8. Click Finished.
The virtual server that references the custom Diameter profile and Diameter pool appears in the Virtual Server list.